ALL THE LATEST NEWS FROM FdM....LUKEWARM OFF THE PRESSES...

WHAT'S ANOTHER YEAR?

One year nearer FdM's 10th anniversary, and it's looking like a pretty quiet one on the FdM front....
...nah, not really, it's already looking bloody mad - more vinyl, more CD sets, more live events, more stupid bonus stuff - all will be revealed as 2017 unfurls (a word I don't think I've ever typed before), but it's going to be good.

THE HONEY POT/US and THEM - WHAT'S STILL IN-STOCK?

I have less than 20 copies left of The Honey Pot double LP on clear vinyl (the blue vinyl copies have now sold out) and about 40 copies of Us and Them's 10" (some orange, some white vinyl) - please check out the SHOP page (if you're not in the UK, please get in touch with Heyday Mail Order or Shiny Beast)

THANK YOU AND GOOD NITE

I've put the 'sold out' sign up on Sendelica's new 7" - which is going some as the pressing plant sent me a few extra! In fact, I will have a few copies - on black vinyl - available for sale at the Lucid Dreams festival in Germany, in May - but very few!

NEEDS MUST

...like FdM as he (Kris Needs, that is) waxes lyrical about the label and our 2016 releases in the latest issue of PROG magazine; and apparently Hugh Fielder says nice things about The Honey Pot double LP in the new issue of Classic Rock - which thankfully isn't the last

CD GOINGS ON

Spring 2017 will also see two 3CD sets emerge from FdM. Sacrilege? Maybe, but I reckon CDs have their place - at the cheap end of things - and these really will be cheap; one will be special set to tie in with the Lucid Dreams festival in Germany, with whatever we have left reappearing at the 15th Dream festival, and the other will be special edition of Kris Gietkowski's vinyl album - again on sale at the 2017 festivals (whatever we have left of both will be offered for sale towards the end of the year)

SPRING 2017

The first full-blown FdM releases of 2017 will escape sometime in April, although not until after sodding RSD has clogged up up all the vinyl presses with Justin Bieber singles, and the like. Look out for superb new recordings from Astralasia on a double LP...Sendelica and Superfjord joining forces to pay tribute to Frank Zappa...and a solo release by Kris Gietkowski that recreates a 40-odd year old LP and harks right back to our original, avowed intent to include the 'wilfully obscure' in the FdM release schedule - it's wild and it's wonderful, or at least I think it is

RC SPONSORS OUR 2017 FESTIVALS

Once again, the music lover's bible, Record Collector, is going to be sponsoring our live events - in Germany and Wales; terrific news that the magazine that gave us our first review, all those years ago, is still supporting us

THAT'S THE TICKET

Pete Bingham from Sendelica tells me that 2/3rds of the Wurzburg festival tickets and over half the Cardigan tickets have already been sold - if you're planning to go, it could be worth securing those tickets very soon

THE FREAKIEST SHOW

Dave Thompson's updated guide to Bowie covers is available now via Amazon and that front cover image has a familiar look...

SHINDIG DIG CLAUDIO

This isn't really news yet, but rumour has it Shindig!'s staff are set to make Claudio Cataldi's FdM 7" one of their top singles of 2016

NEW, IMPROVED WEBSITE?

I hope so, Paul Meggs has been putting a lot of work in behind the scenes to upgrade it, without losing the 'DIY' feel that comes from me still not having much idea about websites, despite having run it for the best part of 6 years. There are still some glitches that need ironing out - if you spot any, please tell me!

FRIENDS OF THE FISH 2017

The first two releases from our spin-off label (usually either limited pressings where the artists do ALL the work or even more limited lathe-cuts where I make a bit of an effort) will be an LP called 'Roots Conference' from Jack Ellister that pulls together a collection of his wonderful covers, followed by the Sendelica Drone Band's one-off set at the 14th Dream festival - more news soon

HONEY POT in PROG

If you'd like another sneak preview of their new double LP, the free CD with the latest issue of PROG magazine includes the 10 minute epic, 'Into The Deep'

JOHN HURFORD

The painting that we're using for the Honey Pot album cover is 'Plantation Wood' by John Hurford. John has a portfolio that goes back to the 60s, including work for OZ and International Times!
Take a look at more of John's work here

READ 'EM AND WEEP

Who better to explain who is on the guest-list of The Honey Pot's new double LP 'Ascending Scales' than Crystal Jacqueline herself?
By the way, you'll be able to get a sneak preview of the album with the next issue of PROG magazine, which features the 10 minute 'Into The Deep' on the cover-mounted CD

VESPERO VINYL

our Russian friends have discovered a few copies of the Shrunken Head Music double 7" and their Floyd covers 7" - available from their website at NON-EBAY prices!
Check them out here

DECEMBER RELEASES AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER

The Shop is now open for our December vinyl, and how's this for starters...

...describing Us and Them's 'Dwindling within The Fading Sun' 10"..."When you consider the wealth of releases and the names who’ve graced the label – the pretty things, soft hearted scientists, beau, vibravoid, the chemistry set et al, as impeccable and illustrious the FdM back catalogue is, this might just well be the finest thing they’ve put out to date"Mark Barton, the Sunday Experience

DECEMBER TEST PRESSINGS ALL APPROVED!

...they sound great, which means that a release-date of December 12th for everything looks about right. Promo CDs are on their way to reviewers and radio shows as I type and I'll begin to take pre-orders very soon

15th DREAM TICKETS SELLING FAST

Pete Bingham tells me he's already sold well over 1/3rd of next year's Cardigan festival tickets - that's much quicker than last year, so if you're definitely going it might be worth booking those tickets soon - and your accomodation, as it's the food festival weekend again at the same time

CURRENCY IMPACT

The dive in the value of sterling is playing havoc with my costs - FdM records are pressed in the Netherlands (I get charged in euros) and then I price everything in sterling (include non-UK sales). I'm going to hold prices for the December releases, but sadly I'm going to have to have a bit of a re-think for 2017.

FISH ACROSS GERMANY

Fruits de Mer will be in Wurzburg next May for the three-day 'Lucid Dreams of Dr Sardonicus' festival, organised by Pete Bingham from Sendelica and Horst Sunhair from Sunhair Records - and what an amazing line-up they have arranged - as David Coleman might have put it, " quite incredible" (I'm just happy to get the FdM logo on the same poster as all those artists!).
Tickets are on sale now - the link to the festival facebook page is
here

DIONYSUS BONUSES

As well as the free back-catalogue singles for the first 60 people who pre-ordered tickets for this Saturday's all-dayer in Derby, I'll be taking a small supply of current singles that I'll be offering for sale at £5 each - with the bonus of a free promo CD with each copy bought. I only have 30 or so spares (most of them are promos to lathe-cut singles from the last couple of years), and I don't want to get into selling them on their own, but I'd like them to go to good homes

JUST DESERTS

More FdM artists have given us glimpses into their musical backgrounds in the 'Desert Island Fish' section of the website, including Us and Them, Icarus Peel and Crystal Jacqueline

FUCHSIA, ANT BARBEAUAND RED SUN TO PLAY THE 15th DREAM!

I'm delighted to say 70s acid-prog cult heroes Fuchsia will be playing next year's festival - Tony Durant is flying over from Australia to play on the Friday evening, with a small strings ensemble. Tony's debut album continues to be cited as one of the great 'lost' albums of the 1970s, although it's regularly reissued, and Tony continues to play and record in Oz. And the latest addtions to the bill are Ant Barbeau, one of FdM's league of psychedelic gentlemen and one of the great, wildly-underrated singer-songwriters of the last 20 years - if you haven't seen Ant on-stage, you'll just love him plus Red Sun - an excellent instrumental rock band, who'll be flying over from Italy

THE BEVIS FROND TO HEADLINE THE 15th DREAM FESTIVAL

Put August 4-6, 2017 in your diaries as we'll be back in Cardigan and hoping to see FdM friends old and...er...not-so-old. and the first piece of excellent news is that The Bevis Frond will be back - returning after topping the bill at Crabstock in 2014. FdM veterans Earthling Society plus Cleethorpe's finest - Chariots - will also be on the bill and, of course, Sendelica; Pete Bingham is in charge again, and will gradually add details as he gets them on a facebook page given over to the festival
hereand early bird tickets are on salehere

STATIC CARAVAN!

Yes, the mystery label that FdM will be sharing a 7" single with at the end of the year is none other than the mighty Static Caravan; launched by Geoff Dolman in the late 90s and now up to over 300 releases, it's the label that many of us aspire to - and the next best thing to being Static Caravan is getting to do a joint-release with the label. More news soon.

DIONYSUS FESTIVAL

the first 60 people to buy a ticket for the Dionysus Festival of Psychedelia in Derby on October 8th will get a free mystery Fruits de Mer Records 7" from our back-catalogue, disguised in a special sleeve designed by Dale Simpson.
As if getting to see Sendelica, The Telephones, The Honey Pot, Earthling Society and lots more bands wasn't enough already.
Details
here

BIGGEST eBAY DEAL YET

but it was for what the seller described as a "near complete" collection - still, £1,800 is a lot of dosh
here

ONE FOR THE FUCHSIA

OK, so it's a long time to summer 2017, but we're very hopeful of having Fuchsia (aka Tony Durant) play at next year's Dr. Sardonicus festival in Wales. Fuchsia were responsible for one of the GREAT acid-folk/prog albums of the 70s and Tony guested on the Me And My Kites single on FdM in 2013. By sheer fluke, I bumped into Tony in Australia last year and we've been working on a couple of ideas since then

BOMP and JUNO STOCK FdM

the excellent BOMP in the USA and the UK online giants JUNO are both stocking our latest releases; check out the links on our STOCKISTS page. It's particularly good news to have a US store on-board - i hope they stay with us

SANDY DENNY TRIBUTE

Only Britt from Us and Them should be allowed anywhere near any song that's closely associated with Sandy Denny, in my book - and that's exactly what's happening with an Us and Them 10" release scheduled for December - five songs from Sandy's back-catalogue, all beautifully reinterpreted by Britt and her partner Anders, with the help of Tony Swettenham (aka Frobisher Neck for long-time FdM followers)

KNIFEY MOLOKO

One more lathe-cut for 2016 - a year-end 7" from Moloko+, who were young hopefuls from Hull in the early 90s but failed to make the breakthrough all (most?) young bands yearn for; 20-odd year on and Record Collector's Ian Shirley re-discover them for an RC compilation, then they offer two previously-unreleased tracks to FdM and a lathe-cut is born. Owing quite a lot to 60s US jangly bands like The Byrds, they struck a chord with me - i think they'll do the same with you - but beware, only 50 copies for sale and club members will get first dibs

GREAT SCOTT

Mr. Engel's 'Nite Flights' will be getting the once-over from Sendelica in their last release of 2016 for us, and a twice-over as Astralasia's Marc Swordfish has unravelled their re-work and then knitted it together again for the b-side

A. They're just a few of the special guests appearing on Fruits de Mer's 100th vinyl release - a double LP by The Honey Pot, called 'Ascending Scales'; more names to follow!

DECEMBER RELEASES

I've started to post a few details on the year-end releases from FdM (see our INDEX and DISCOGRAPHY pages for links), with more to follow; if you're not already in our members club or our main mailing list, please email me (fruitsdemer7@hotmail.com) and i'll make sure you don't miss out on any news on them, but i won't start taking orders until October

THE PLANKTON ARE BLOOMING (LOVELY)

Record Collector magazine's 'best of the early years of Fruits de Mer Records' LP, The first in RC's 'Modern Collectibles' series is now as an FdM CD.
The vinyl junkie's bible bravely chose FdM for its new series of albums, and they did us proud with a re-mastered selection of tracks from the first dozen releases on the label. It was released on Record Collector's own label about three years ago - and they've given us the OK to produce 300 copies on CD - check out our DISCOGRAPHY and SHOP pages; and yes, it includes the exclusive live Pretty Things track that was a bonus 7" on the original album

POSTCARDS FROM THE HEAP

on sale now - a 52-card postcard pack featuring covers from FdM releases that we either improved on, rejected, thought better of, spotted the deliberate mistake on, etc. Really nicely printed (ie not by me), they're a rather nifty way of reliving some of our past triumphs/cock-ups; check out our MERCHANDISE and SHOP pages

IF YOU WEREN'T THERE, BUY THE POSTERS

..and fool your friends. We're selling a set of large (A2) posters featuring two versions of the 14th Dream poster, a wholly irrelevant '14th Bream' version and a bonus poster promoting our 100th vinyl release (on sale later this year); more details on our MERCHANDISE and SHOP pages

The Dr. SARDONICUS FESTIVAL 2017!

Yes, we'll be back in Cardigan in 2017 -August 4-6 - put the dates in your diary, I KNOW some people have booked their hotel rooms already!

FdM IN GERMANY

If you'd like another weekend of great music, pencil in May 5-6 2017 - we're hoping to be involved in a new event that's currently being planned - more news very soon (if it goes ahead, we'll leave Games for May to Mega Dodo for 2017 - two events a year is plenty for us!)

DOWN IN ONE....

very few crates of the Mantle Brewery's '14th Dream of Dr. Sardonicus' best bitter are left - please check out the brewery website - here - if you want to pre-order; there will be individual bottles on sale in the Cellar Bar - but I don't know how long they'll last!

ON SALE NOW - AND THEN THEY WERE GONE

The August singles have arrived a week early here at FdM and we'll be shipping out direct UK orders from August 1st. The good/bad news is that we've completely sold out of the Vibravoid single already - we have enough to meet all pre-orders and there'll be a stash of 'odd colours' for visitors to the 14th Dream festival, but that's it; but never fear - our FdM-firndly shops will be getting their supplies in the next few days, so check out our 'STOCKISTS' page for alternatives

RECORD COLLECTOR MAG COMES UP WITH THE GOODS

at the 14th Dream of Dr. Sardonicus Festival, Friday night is quiz night!
The rather wonderful Record Collector magazine - our festival sponsors - have kindly donated a pretty spectacular first prize for the FdM quiz - a set of Record Collector LP releases worth over £250.
doors open at Cardigan's Cellar Bar on Friday evening at 7pm, and the quizzes starts at 8, with lots mores stuff to be won. Add in live music from The Seventh Ring of Saturn's Ted Selke, The Blue Giant Zeta Puppies and Sendelica Acoustica and you've got to be there!

COMING SOON TO A PINT GLASS NEAR ME

The Mantle Brewery are stocking up on '14th Dream of Dr. Sardonicus' special edition best bitter - bottled by Cardigan's own microbrewery for the festival and available throughout the festival.
There are also be a few crates available for mail order from Mantle - or to be collected direct from Ian at the brewery when you arrive in Cardigan (just give him a call on 01239 623 898 if you want some bottles set aside for you)
mail order here

VIBRAVOID/IRON BUTTERFLY CONFUSION

For once, not by me - PROG magazine features Vibravoid's version of the classic 'In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida' on its free CD with the new issue (your chance to hear the track when its not split in half across a 7" Fruits de Mer single) BUT the CD attributes the recording to Iron Butterfly, not Vibravoid! Irritating or flattering - I'm not sure, but the track sounds great, anyway

12 SHADES OF SENDELICA

Check out yet another 14th Dream festival special - this one is a 'Friends of the Fish' one-sided 12" release by Sendelica - taken from the band's archives to celebrate 10 years together. Details are
here

FdM VERY RARELY RELEASES CDs

or to be precise, we very rarely sell CDs, but just one in a while there's an opportunity that's too good to refuse and 14th Dream festival-goers will be the first to pick up a bit of a bargain - for a nice round £5, they'll be able to grab a nifty little collection that will look vaguely familiar when they see it. I suspect there won't be many left once they, the bands involved and club members who can't make the festival have staked their claims, but I'll know more once the carnival...sorry, festival is over

MORE GIDEON COE AIRPLAY

A very week for FdM in terms of airplay on BBC 6Music's best new music show, with Gideon playing tracks from new singles by Sidewalk Society and Icarus Peel, not to mention a track from Scott Urquhart's exclusive CD, which we gave away at 'Games For May'

14th DREAM GOODIE-BAGS

I've posted some links to tracks from the CDs that will be in the festival goodie-bags
here just to whet your appetites, or get on your nerves if you're not going

14th DREAM LATHE-CUTS

a quick preview of the ludicrously-limited Fruits de Mer Records lathe-cuts that will be on sale at the 14th Dream of Dr. Sardonicus festival....
Just 50 copies of each will be on sale - with two of the releases on sale on Day 2 and the other two on Day 3 of the festival.
It'll be first-come-first-served for one of the releases each day, but the second release will appear unexpectedly on the FdM stall at some point during each day - just to keep everyone on their toes!
more details, including excerpts, here...
here

PRETTY MUCH COMPLETE FdM COLLECTION ON eBAY

Someone has decided to cash-in/cash-out after a good many years of supporting Fruits de Mer - good luck to them, I hope the collection finds a good home. I think every 'standard' single and album release to-date is included, along with lots of CD extras and goodie-bags. My guess was that a dealer would buy them for about £800 and break the collection up, hoping to make a few quid; shows how much I know, bids are up to £1,600 and the reserve hasn't been met; still a few days to go, you can see the listing
here

VIBRAVOID ON PROG MAGAZINE CD

Hot on the heels of Proud Peasant, Vibravoid will have an exclusive version of a Fruits de Mer track on the next PROG magazine CD - you won't want to miss this

14th DREAM FESTIVAL - FdM CD COMPILATIONS

I've now firmed up who will be on which CD over the three days of this year's festival - it's a rather splendid mix of artists you know and artists you'll be hearing for the first time - I'm really pleased with the way they've come together; you can see the line-up
here

14th DREAM GOODIE-BAG

...and the rest of the goodie-bag contaents are now finalised - an unfeasibly large 10 discs, in addition to the FdM compilations; more details here

PROUD PEASANT IN PROG MAGAZINE

The new issue of PROG, on sale mid/late June, features the band's cover of the Manfred Mann's Earth Band track from their recent FdM 7"; no substitute for vinyl, of course, but good to see the band getting wider exposure

14th DREAM BAND CHANGE

Unfortunately, The Electric Stars aren't able to make this year's festival, but I'm delighted to say Vert:x have stepped in; you may well remember them from 'Roqueting Through Space', 'The Crabs Sell Out' and 'Strange Fruits & Veg', they'll also be supporting Vibravoid at their London gig (The Lexington) on August 10th

100 NOT OUT (YET)

At the end of 2016, we will be releasing FdM's 100th vinyl record (it's the 100th 'cos I say so) and it clearly has to be something out of the ordinary; to this end, Icarus Peel, Crystal Jacqueline and The Honey Pot are currently recording a double album of covers and original songs especially for us and they've roped in some old firends to help. I'm sworn to secrecy at this stage but it's going to be a quite remarkable gathering of friends old and new

US, THEM and SANDY

Britt and Anders will be back on Fruits de Mer at the end of the year with a release that's going to mean a lot to me - as they reinterpret several songs originally written and recorded by Sandy Denny. The project has taken something like 18 months to come together, but it's so worth the wait as it take a very special voice to tackle anything sung by Sandy and, to my ears, Britt surpasses anyone else

LATHE-CUTTING - ONE SIZE DOESN'T FIT ALL

It looks like the 14th Dream will see us selling exclusive 7" lathe-cuts, 8" lathe-cuts and...5" lathe-cuts! We had to turn to 8" lathe-cuts for Games for May as the tracks we'd selected were simply too long to fit on a 7", now we've discovered that 345rpm.co.uk have introduced a 5" option, and we happen to have two 2 minute tracks that are crying out to be cut on the new format

TWO MONTHS TO THE 14th DREAM

That's a scary thought, not least because the FdM storeroom is looking just a bit depleted after Games For May. But never fear, we have some rather special specials that are coming together in good time for Cardigan - in fact, so many, we're getting a bit worried about we're going to get everything there, but there'll be lathe-cuts, posters, t-shirts, free singles and the annual FdM goodie-bag (which will be even more packed than last year!)

COUNTDOWN TO GAMES FOR MAY

If you haven't read the headline on the home page, please check it out - the tube's not running to Putney Bridge on Sunday, so you'll need an alternative - there are lots of buses to choose from and I've suggested a few; meanwhile, FdM Towers is awash with boxes of stuff ready for Sunday's gig - bags full of free 4CD sets and Scott Urquhart CDs; July, Claudio and Crystal Jacqueline 7"s on black vinyl; Sendelica's 'Chromlech Chronicles' on red vinyl plus assorted white labels, Chemistry Set double LPs, Games For May t-shirts and the like; don't wait for ebay - come along and fill your racks - and see and hear some great live music too

"PSYCHEDELIC HEAVEN"

The US website 50thirdand3rd have a cup of tea and a nice chat with FdM or, as they describe it..."psychedelic heaven"!
here

JOHN WESTHAVER INTRODUCES FdM TO CANADIAN COMMUNITY RADIO

John Fruits de Mer Records special - a massive FdM special show on Canadian community radio - many thanks to John for digging through his archives to put a show together that spans the years - from 'Roqueting Through Space' to 'Sorrow's Children' to 'Head Music', all the way up to Sendelica's 'Ziggy'.
A far better introduction to the label than i could ever put together...
here

LORD LITTER'S 14th DREAM FESTIVAL SPECIAL

Radio Berlin's Lord Litter has put together a 14th Dream preview show featuring Vibravoid, Jack Ellister, The Luck Of Eden Hall, Sendelica and many more Fruits de Mer favourites. Check it out
here

THE QUEUES ARE FORMING OUTSIDE THE HALF MOON ALREADY

...for Games for May at the Half Moon in London on May 29, of course.
Sendelica, Magic Bus, The Honey Pot, Soft Hearted Scientists are all playing live; there are exclusive 4CD sets featuring the bands for everyone attending; Fruits de Mer Records and Mega Dodo Records will have vinyl and merchandise for sale, plus great food, even better beer - what better way could there be to spend a Bank Holiday Sunday?
all the details are here - https://www.facebook.com/events/781150942011428/

MOJO - NOW WITH CHEMICAL ADDITIVE

The new, 'Syd' issue of Mojo has an excellent bonus CD of new psychedelia, including The Chemistry Set's 'Albert Hofmann', taken from 'The Endless More And More'

GIDEON COE'S LABEL OF LOVE

Many thanks to Gideon for making Fruits de Mer his 'label of love' feature today (April 20), playing five tracks from the FdM back-catalogue; the show will be available for playback on the BBC website soon, and then for a week or two

AUGUST RELEASES

August will see three 7" single releases (that's not including anything lathe-cutty we get up to at the summer festival), featuring the ever-vibrant Vibravoid remaking 'In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida', the very welcome return of Sidewalk Society with a four-track EP of covers of The Action and Bowie, and something that's taken a long time to come together...'the FdM Guide to The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy', featuring Astralasia, Icarus Peel and The Blue Giant Zeta Puppies; more details soon

WIN THE CHEMISTRY SET SPECIAL EDITION BOX-SET

Win The Chemistry Set's 'Endless More And More' special edition UK club members-only box-set - courtesy of the band and MOJO magazine.
Rare as hen's gold-capped teeth, we've linked up with Mojo magazine to make one set available as a competition prize. It's officially worth £35, as that's what I sold them for to FdM club members,but as a set has already sold on ebay for over £280, who knows...(please note that if you're not in the UK, Mojo won't be able to send you the fragile parts ie the set of test-tubes!)
the link to the prize draw is...
here

CARY GRACE SCREENPRINTED POSTER

Cary, who has two tracks on Fruits de Mer's 'Games For May' lathe-cut 8", is planning to produce a VERY limited run of screen printed copies of this poster, promoting a forthcoming gig that she's playing;
the poster is designed by Cary too - get in quick to pre-order a copy
here

MOJO COMPETITION

If you miss out on the super special edition of The Chemistry Set's 'Endless More And More' LP, the band have given one set to Mojo magazine to offer as an online prize - I'll post details as soon as I have them (sorry, if you live outside the UK, you won't get the easily-breakable elements)

FdM PRICE-HIKE

Sorry, but I'm going to put the price of new-release 7" singles up to £6 from May onwards - I could blame the falling value of sterling, Royal Mail price increases, Aston Villa's disastrous season in the Premiership, having another grandkid on the way...but basically i think I'm losing money on singles so i've got to do something about it; prices of double 7"s, albums and everything else will stay as they are. One day soon, i'll work out how to add a nominal P&P charge on Paypal to UK orders but at the moment that's beyond me

SENDELICA 'ZIGGY' REVIEWS - CRIKEY, THEY'RE GOOD

I was a little concerned about a bit of a "bandwagon-jumping" backlash, but no...reviewers really do seem to get what Sendelica were trying to achieve...

"Forget Lady Gaga’s karaoke at the Grammys and Lorde’s ill‐judged display at the Brits, this single is what a tribute to Bowie should be like: mysterious and bewildering, with scintillating space‐rock swirlings, mildly unhinged female vocals, backwards tape-loop FX and more"Geoff Barton, Classic Rock

""If you can imagine seeing a star-sign version of Bowie as Ziggy Stardust walking through space then I suspect you’ll be on the right track envisioning that and imagining what the soundtrack to this would be like.
While apparently not planned nor conceived as a tribute to a great artist following his passing, Sendelica’s take on Ziggy Stardust does come across as a highly appropriate track to play in such a context. There’s a mournful edge to this cover version, bordering on lament at times in terms of mood and atmosphere, combined with a sensual/erotic vocal presence and the psychedelic, cosmic light toned overlays that gives this piece something of an otherworldly general presence. A tribute to a great artist in the game if not the name, to put it that way, and I doubt if too many others will manage to make their tributes to David Bowie in a manner as compelling as this one for some time...My rating: 100/100"Olav Martin Bjornsen, House of Prog

GAMES FOR MAY TIMINGS CONFIRMED

a bonus for everyone who comes along to our Games for May gig with Mega Dodo Records - an exclusive CD of acoustic guitar pieces by FdM club member Scott Urquart ('Rosie's Smile'); a companion to Scott's 'September Sky' CD, which will be free to everyone attending our '14th Dream' summer festival.
That's in addition to an epic (ie big) four CD set featuring all the bands playing 'Games for May' that everyone who comes along will get free and for nothing.
Book your tickets...
here

THE CHEMISTRY SET ALBUM ON CD

if you'd like a copy of The Chemistry Set's new album, 'The Endless More And More' on CD, the band have a very limited run of 100 copies available direct from them - details are
here

14th DREAM FESTIVAL UPDATE

Over half of the tickets are already sold for this year's festival - all the details are at http://sendelica.bandcamp.com/merch/fruits-de-mer-ufo-club-sendelica-presents-the-14th-dream-of-dr-sardonicus-international-psychedlic-festival-early-bird-ticket Might be worth getting your tickets soon.

GAMES FOR MAY UPDATE

I'm putting the artwork together for the 4CD set we'll be giving to everyone who comes along to Games for May 2016 at the Half Moon; each CD has been compiled by one of the bands that will be playing live, to showcase their recorded output to-date.All that and the best part of four hours of live music! (http://www.fruitsdemerrecords.com/gamesformay2016.html for more info)

JANUARY ALBUMS UPDATE

the gold vinyl Chemistry Set LPs sold out within a day or two of release, the 75 black vinyl copies that I managed to get from the pressing plant lasted a few days beyond that and I'm down to the last few copies of Michael Padilla's 'Atmospheres' LP. There will be a short-run CD version of The Chemistry Set album available direct from the band in early February and special double-LP edition on sale in April - again in limited quantities; check the links on the 'discography page for the latest details

JULY ARE BACK!

Christmas arrived early at FdM Towers with the news that the legendary band July, whose self-titled debut album was, and still is, an absolute 60s psychedelic classic, have agreed to release a single on Fruits de Mer in early summer 2016 - featuring an extended version of a track from their reunion album, 'Resurrection'.More news very soon

THE CHEMISTRY SET - SHINDIG! FEATURE

Look out for a major article on the band in the next issue of Shindig

JAN 2016 ALBUM RELEASES

The Chemistry Set and Michael Padilla LPs were both bang on-schedule for release in the first week of January; yes, Fruits de Mer actually hit a release date! (i promise not to make it a habit in 2016). The Chemistry Set LP is sold out here already, except for a handful of black vinyl copies, and I have less than 20 copies of Michael Padilla's album left

RECORD COLLECTOR MAGAZINE SPONSORS THE 14TH DREAM OF DR. SARDONICUS

Every vinyl junkie's favourite magazine is very kindly sponsoring Fruits de Mer's favourite summer festival; look out for publicity in Record Collector in the next couple of months, and get your tickets early before everyone finds out about it!Clearly we're not worthy, but we do have a lot of front in asking, and RC's editor Ian McCann is a real friend of the label

THREE CHEERS

...and for the third year running, Cardigan's very own microbrewery will be producing a special edition of its most-excellent best bitter to celebrate

MAY 2016 RELEASES

A long way away, i know, but there'll be two new releases from FdM in May - a 7" EP from Crystal Jacqueline and a live LP from Sendelica - more news in a few weeks' time

LORD SNOOTY RODE AGAIN

Lord Snooty (aka Todd Dillingham) and his friends tap-danced their way through a Fruits de Mer Records radio special on Sunday, December 13th. It should be available for streaming soon, details at https://www.facebook.com/events/761083024025415/

FdM - THE 4th BEST RECORD LABEL IN...

...Shindig! The phoenix-like psych lover's bible (I like to mix my metaphors) has declared Fruits de Mer to be the 4th best label after Light In The Attic, Ace and State, in its 2015 poll - with the excellent You Are The Cosmos in at No.5 with a bullet (or some vinyl).

FdM MAKES GOLDMINE'S FESTIVE TOP 50

Goldmine's Dave Thompson has given our 2015 releases the thumbs-up..."."All Fruits de Mer compilations are brilliant; all should be on this list. So, in fact, should their 45 releases, but hey – go to their website"
http://www.goldminemag.com/features/2015-years-fifty-best

MICHAEL PADILLA 'ATMOSPHERES' SOLD-OUT

on pre-orders at FdM towers, anyway. I'm trying to get a few more sent my way but in the meantime Heyday and Shiny Beast will get their supplies direct from the pressing plant, so you can pre-order from them if you want to be sure of your copy

CHEMISTRY SET INTERVIEW

It's Psychedelic Baby have interviewed The Chemistry Set's Dave McLean about his musical influences, the early days of the band and the new album - well-worth a read... here

CLAUDIO CATALDI

Claudio, a solo artist from Italy, contributed a great Syd Barrett cover for our 'Momentary Lapse Of Vinyl' compilation and then sent me an equally warming version of the Vevet Underground's 'Here She Comes Now', which i included on a members freebie CD earlier this year, but i really think it deserves to be heard on vinyl - so it will be, on a Claudio Cataldi 7"EP next Spring

SENDELICA PLAY ZIGGY

...meanwhile Sendelica will continue FdM's belated discovery of Mr. Bowie next Spring with a 7" single with not one but two versions of 'Ziggy', the second being a remix by Astralasia's Marc Swordfish

PROUD PEASANT

introducing a new band for Fruits de Mer, recommended to me by Henry Schneider from Expose magazine, they play classic keyboard-led progressive/spacerock and they'll be appearing on their own FdM 7" next Spring

MOTHER RUSSIA

if you weren't able to make the 13th Dream Festival, Trevor Midgley (aka Simfonica) has kindly uploaded his track from the Day3 FdM free CD and added a video to it

FdM CONTRIBUTES TOWARDS FURTHER EDUCATION

all copies of the new Chemistry Set LP will include bigger-than-A2 periodic table posters specially-designed by Mick dillingham so you can expand your chemical knowledge while listening to the album. FdM reaches parts of the brain other labels don't give a monkey's about

LORD SNOOTY RIDES AGAIN

Lord Snooty's Fruits de Mer radio special is now available on mixcloud - hours of fun, or hours of FdM anyway...https://www.mixcloud.com/todd-dillingham/fruits-de-mer-radio-show-premiere-lord-snootys-super-sunday-show-2015-251-wwwmusicworldradiocom/

THE CHEMISTRY SET - GRAND UNVEILING

Dave McLean cordially invites you to the first viewing of the new video to a track from their forthcoming album, 'The Endless More And More'; it's on November 3rd - details on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/events/917596011650684/
- it's a stunning video for a brilliant track

SAVE THE CHILDREN RELEASE

Small Bear Records, Schizo Fun Addict and The Bordellos are putting together a very limited cassette release (100 copies) with all proceeds going to the Save The Children fund. Ex Norwegian and Permanent Clear Light have agreed that i can produce 100 special promo CDs of their lathe-cut single and include a copy in each of the Small Bear parcels (which will also include two more CDs, al;ong with the cassette). Highly collectible, great music and all for a very good cause - i'll post ordering details as soon as I have them

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE SOFT HEARTED SCIENTISTS - DOUBLE CD

Fruits de Mer's double LP retrospective is now available on double CD direct from the band - check out their website or facebook page for ordering details....
check out their website
here or facebook page here

The 14th DREAM of Dr. SARDONICUS

Yes, we'll be making our annual pilgrimage to Wales in 2016 for another three-day festival (we'll keep going back until we get it right). From August 5-7, we'll be descending on Cardigan's Cellar Bar and Tipi for three days of bands, stalls, beer and freebies.
There'll be more details soon - it's 11 months until the festival, so there's no rush - however, acts already confirmed for the 2016 festival include:

Vibravoid
Twink
and, of course, Sendelica

- so it's going to be some kind of wonderful weekend!
The plan is to maintain all the best bits of 2015 and do a bit of tweaking to make it even better; so, for example, the Friday evening session will be much more relaxed and informal, as it proved difficult for many people to get to Cardigan in time for an early start; we'll keep all the FdM freebies and exclusive vinyl for Saturday and Sunday; and we'll see if we can end the Sunday night live music a little earlier to help everyone who has to make a trip home that night.
Lots more acts - and information - in due course

MORE GAMES FOR MAY

May 29, 2016 - The Half Moon, Putney - as if once wasn't more than enough, Megadodo and Fruits de Mer will join up again to present an evening of great live music, record stalls, exclusive stuff and mad giveaways at FdM's favourite London venue (and this time, the Half Moon promise not to run out of beer!)
Get your diaries out and put a line through Bank Holiday Sunday as we'll be opening the doors at 4pm and presenting four live bands plus stalls selling vinyl and merchandise from FdM, Megadodo and the bands themselves.

The bands will all be very familiar to followers of FdM:
Sendelica
Magic Bus
Crystal Jacqueline and The Honey Pot
Soft Hearted Scientists

- a terrific line-up, with at least two of the bands planning to launch new releases at the gig!
Instead of a goodie-bag, this time we're putting together an exclusive 4CD set featuring all four bands - limited to 200 copies and free to ticket-holders who turn up on the night - a great introduction to the artists and highly-collectible, of course!
The Half Moon are already selling tickets - even though it's nine months away!
You can book
here

VINCEBUS ERUPTUM

The new issue of the excellent Italian magazine will include a feature on Fruits de Mer.

THE CHEMISTRY SET - NEW ALBUM

Arguable one of the best UK psych bands of the last 30 years - I'd definitely argue that, anyway - The Chemistry Set will be releasing their first album for Fruits de Mer in January 2016; it'll be over five years since they last put out an album, although a lot longer than that since they put one out on vinyl.Some of the songs on the LP will be familiar to FdM followers, but they are also some stunning new ones - all in all, a bit of a corker, if I may be so bold. Add a stunning gatefold sleeve, and some subtle gold vinyl and we'll be starting 2016 in style.

FRUITS de MER LIVE IN 2016

Although we're still finalising line-ups, we're definitely going two have two live events again in 2016, and they bear a remarkable resemblance to this year:
May 29 - More Games For May - Half Moon, Putney - another joint-event with Mega Dodo Records
August 5-7 - The 14th Dream of Dr. Sardonicus - Cardigan, Wales - organised once again by Pete Bingham from Sendelica...more news very soon

MICHAEL PADILLA PICTURE DISC

The picture disc image to Michael's 'Atmospheres' LP has been created by US artist Tahiti Pehrson; the reverse of the disc features the same image, but reversed out, and there is a 12" circular insert with the package, with track listings, credits, etc.
I've held off from releasing a picture disc for a long time, fearing I'd risk drifting further into 'novelty' territory, having already put out a box-set of flexis!, but on this occasion the nature of the music and a stunning image for the disc itself kind of forced my hand
The music is at the 'experimental end' of Fruits de Mer releases, so i'll be keeping the pressing quantity tight on this one

JANUARY 2016 RELEASES

(Very) early 2016 will see the release by Fruits de Mer of a stunning new album by The Chemistry Set on the Regal Crabomophone label and an album of improvised synth sounds by Michael Padilla on the strangefish imprint; Michael's album, 'Atmospheres', will be our first picture disc, although it will include everything on a CD too - as i know there are concerns with sound quality on pic discs.

HOLE IN MY SHOP

Vibravoid's new single is an instant sell-out here at FdM, although i'm hoping to get a few more copies sent over by the band; meanwhile, my apologies to anyone who see's our ads in Shindig! or PROG and then is frustrated at not being able to buy a copy - please join the FdM mailing-list and get the inside track on future releases - email fruitsdemer7@hotmail.com

SIDE EFFECTS AND SEPTEMBER SINGLES

I'm pleased to say all UK pre-orders placed direct with FdM for the box-set and four 7" singles are now in the Royal Mail system and should be reaching their final resting places within the next few days (that's unless you intend to sell them on ebay at some inflated price). Hope you enjoy them.

SOFT HEARTED SCIENTISTS ON CD

and if you'd like a double CD of the Soft Hearted Scientists' 'Whatever Happened' Fruits de Mer retrospective, again please email me - again, there are only a few left after the festival launch - available at a ludicrously-cheap £5 (plus P&P if you're outside the UK)

FRIENDS OF THE FISH 5 - JACK ELLISTER ALBUM

I launched 'Friends of the Fish' last year as a side label whereby artists closely associated with the label could occasionally release their own limited-run vinyl records with strong FdM connections and i could tell you about them - and that's exactly what Friends of the Fish 1 - 'Sendelica live at Crabstock' was.
Since then, things have got a bit blurred - as usual - with me producing three extremely limited lathe-cut 7" 'live event' singles (Friends of the Fish, 2, 3 and 4) and three members-only CD compilations.
So - at the moment - 'Friends of the Fish' is a side label for things that very closely linked to FdM but aren't full-run FdM releases, lathe-cut singles and the occasional FdM members special; confused? Me too.
ANYWAY, Friends of the Fish 5 will go back to the original idea of the label - it's vinyl, it's very limited and it's very closely linked FdM.
Friends of the Fish 5 will be Jack Ellister's 1st solo album. It will be released by Jack around November 20th and there will be just 111 copies for sale.
Colour vinyl, numbered and signed - including a mix of songs you've not heard before and tracks such as the brilliant 'The Man With The Biochopper'.
It will cost £25 plus postage and packing - and it will only be avaliable direct from Jack.
If you'd like to join the waiting list, please email Jack - jackellister@gmail.com and tell him i sent you. I think it will sell out very quickly so please don't take too long if you're interested

2016 LIVE EVENTS

We're already planning for 2016 and we've had such great feedback from FdM fans, bands and venues that it looks like we'll be back at the Half Moon on May 29th and in Cardigan from August 5-7, with one more gig possible later in the year. More details as soon as I have them.

13th DREAM FESTIVAL SPECIALS

most of the tiems we brought along to the Cardigan festival sold very quickly, but i do have a few items here at FdM Towers; if the 'Momentary 3' 7" single, Cranium Pie 'Mechanisms Tapes' double CD, Soft Hearted Scientists 'Whatever Happened...'double CD or the 13th Dream festival posters are on your wants list, please email me at fruitsdemer7@hotmail.com and I'll see whether we can sort something out for you

SIDE EFFECTS - LATEST NEWS

I should get a first complete set on August 19; provided that's all OK, the full run will be dispatched a few days later - so i should get my supply around August 25 (just a few days later than planned) and Shiny Beast should get their copies at the same time. fingers crossed there are no problems with the final sample

AURAL INNOVATIONS

'13th Dream of Dr. Sardonicus' extravaganza!
Jerry Kranitz's latest Aural Innovations radio show is a two-hour festival/Fruits de Mer special, with tracks from the FdM compilations, lathe-cut singles and goodie-bag CDs PLUS tracks from the September 7" releases.http://aural-innovations.com/radio/playlist.html

have a listen and get a taster of what you'll be getting (or missing) at the festival

FdM SELLS OUT (again)

The 13th Dream Festival is a sell-out - which is great news for Pete from Sendelica who is doing all the serious organising and took the financial risk. It also means a great atmosphere is guaranteed in the...ahem...'cozy' Cellar Bar

13th DREAM GOODIE-BAG CDs

the last of the CDs have arrived at FdM Towers - so everyone attending our festival on the Saturday evening will get 10 CDs....FREE! Every CD is a promo/special edition or FdM exclusive - and there's some fantastic music waiting for Cardigan visitors

SEPTEMBER SINGLES

I'm now taking orders for the four autumn singles, featuring Vibravoid, Tir na nOg, Magic Bus and nick nicely - as fine a bunch of artists, and singles, as I've ever come up - probably. Germany's best psych rock band, Ireland's cult acid-folk duo, the UK's leading exponents of the Canterbury sound and the psychedelic rock star who nearly was - what more could you ask for?

THE MECHANISMS TAPES

"3 hours of improvisation, out-takes, intakes and late-night shed jams from Cranium Pie's secret baking research station"
...that's how Cranium Pie's Rob Appleton has described an almost-totally unexpected new release from the band. It spans the period from the recording of 'Mech1' to 'Mech2' and takes the phrase "cut'n'paste" into new territory - leaping from extended pieces to 30 second excerpts, without pausing for breath.It will be available - at first, anyway - at the 13th Dream Festival in two unFdM-like formats - a double cassette and a 4CD setSorry - no vinyl for now - a four LP set would take a LONG time and a lot of money to put together and the tapes only arrived a few weeks ago!

THE BEER HAS LANDED

Cardigan's local microbrewery - the Mantle Brewery - has produced a special edition of its best bitter, celebrating the 13th Dream festival, and bottles have reached the brewery. It'll be on sale from the Cellar Bar and from the brewery itself during the three days, but Ian at Mantle has organised a mail order service for those of us that can't wait until early August! Phone the brewery on 01239 623898 and pay over the phone with a credit / debit card - or email an order to domi@mantlebrewery.com. Cases of 12 bottles cost £26, postal deliver delivery is another £10-£20, depending on whether you're in the UK or Europe

MAGIC BUS TO PLAY 13th DREAM FESTIVAL

Sadly, Superfjord are going to be unable to make the trip over to Cardigan in August - but I'm really pleased to say that Magic Bus have jumped on-board and will be playing a set on Saturday afternoon. If you love the classic Canterbury sound, Magic Bus are going to make your day - and they just happen to have their first record on Fruits de Mer due for release in early September

SEPTEMBER SINGLES

It will be early/mid-July before i will be taking firm orders for the next four singles, but they are all currently in good shape (round) to be released in early September

345rpm.co.uk LATHE-CUT LIMITED PRESSINGS

Check out http://www.fruitsdemerrecords.com/lathe.html for details of the first releases FdM is producing with 345rpm; individually lathe-cut vinyl pressings, never more than 50 produced for sale and offered for sale initially at FdM 'events'. They're not cheap, but they are rather cool

SIDE EFFECTS - SOLD OUT TWO MONTHS BEFORE ITS RELEASE-DATE?

...I hope not, but I've sold all my requested supply from the pressing plant, so I've stopped taking firm orders and started a waiting-list until i actually get my delivery; I usually get extra copies, and I've certainly asked for extras, but I'm playing it safe - i don't want to disappoint people and have to return cash. UK orders I've already received and acknowledged are secure and, if you live outside the UK, you can still pre-order from Shiny Beast - who have their own guaranteed supply direct from the pressing plant and aren't yet up to their full quota of orders (or weren't when i last checked)

FdM MAKES THE COVER OF RC

as we say in these abbreviated times. The new issue of Record Collector is a psych special, and includes a four page feature/interview on Fruits de Mer. We even get a mention on the front cover.Blimey.

13th DREAM GUEST - CARY GRACE!

Cary has just confirmed she's coming along to the festival. She's not going to be able to play a set, but I'm sure she'll be happy to sign a few copies of the 'momentary one' 7" (which features her version of 'Cirrus Minor'), and she'll also be bringing along a few copies of her new CD album 'Tygerland' (there's a taster from it on one of the FdM-compiled free CDs that we'll be dishing out on one of the three days)

INTERSTELLAR EMILY

if you're planning to come to the 13th Dream Of Dr. Sardonicus festival, try to get down there a day early and enjoy an evening of early Floyd covers by Interstellar Emily (please note: the festival ticket doesn't cover entry to this August 6th gig). Details from The Cellar Bar site - www.castlecafeandcellarbar.com

13th DREAM - SPREADING THE LARGESSE

The festival doors open at 4pm on Friday August 7th. The FdM stall will be selling stuff over all three days, and I'll do my best to make sure there are some new and 'unusual' items available each day, just to keep things interesting. There's a rough schedule on the festival page - http://www.fruitsdemerrecords.com/13thdream.html - but it IS only rough!

TAKING ORDERS NOW FOR 'SIDE EFFECTS'

The box-set is still not due to arrive until August 20, but I've started taking orders as there's just a chance they will arrive a week or two early. UK buyers can order direct from the FdM 'Shop' page; if you're outside the UK, I recommend Shiny Beast (www.shinybeast.nl) - please note that Nick Leese at Heyday Mail Order is not able to handle this box-set as he will be doing some reorganising around the release-date, but it will be business as usual for Heyday when we get to the September singles releases.
PLEASE NOTE: it looks like I'm down to my last 40 copies and it's still more than two months until the set comes out - so please don't take too long ordering

GAMES FOR MAY GOODIE-BAGS

200 of them packed and ready to be dished out at our May 24th gig (there's also a gig poster, but that's too big for the bag) - thanks again to VIP Record Fairs for providing the bags

SEPTEMBER SINGLES

Delays to the release of 'Side Effects' means I'm now looking at a September 1st release for a little flurry of 7" singles, including a great Tir na nOg two-tracker, the return of psych cult hero nick nicely and psychedelic rock monsters Vibravoid to FdM, topped off with a first release on the label by Magic Bus

SIDE EFFECTS - DUE ON AUGUST 20th

I've had a estimated delivery date from the pressing plant of August 20th, so that's what I'm now working to; but I won't start taking pre-orders until the end of May at the earliest (and i won't give details to Shiny Beast or Heyday until then) as i don't think i should be taking anyone's money so far ahead of a release!

SUPERFJORD'S 'A LOVE SUPREME' - IN GOOD COMPANY

I'm not normally one for publicity (joke), but the new issue of Mojo features Superfjord's superb version of 'A Love Supreme' on its c/m CD, alongside the likes of Neu!, Charles Mingus and Sun Ra!
(and you can buy a copy on 7" vinyl from FdM - on black vinyl for added authenticity - just check out our 'shop' page)

THE 13th DREAM CD COLLECTION

sounds like something from Time-Life but, thanks to designer Frank Suchomel, the free CDs we'll be giving away (one per night) at the summer festival in Cardigan will have design elements lifted from the official gig poster and look rather splendid; tracks are coming in and it looks like each comp will run to about an hour and feature a mix of familiar artists and new faces

MAGIC BUS - A NEW FRUITS de MER SERVICE WILL BE RUNNING THIS AUTUMN

I am very pleased to say Magic Bus, who pick up where the classic Caravan line-up left off and have already produced two superb albums and a single for Static Caravan, are currently in the studio recording an exclusive track for an autumn FdM 7" - more news soon

CRANIUM PIE - MECHANISMS PART TWO - INSTANT SELL-OUT AT FDM TOWERS

I don't think there's ever been a Fruits de Mer release that's sold so quickly; even though i upped the overall order by 100 copies and then got 20 more than i expected, Liz and I ran out of copies on the day the albums arrived and I've had to turn away a lot of trade orders since. I also have a waiting list of people hoping a copy or two will materialise (I'm doing my best to track a few down). Always worth checking the shops listed on our LINKS page

TIR NA NOG - EXCLUSIVE FRIENDS OF THE FISH 7"

Tir na nOg are launching 'The Dark Dance', their first studio album in 40 years' at our 'Games for May' gig - and there'll be an exclusive 50-run individually lathe-cut 7" available for sale at £10 a time to the first 50 people to buy the album.This is a 'Friends of the Fish' special - Friends of the Fish 2, to be precise - not available ANYWHERE ELSE; it features a track from the new album plus a previously-unreleased live version of 'Mariner Blues' and the fact that it's lathe-cut one copy at a time makes it all-the-more-special (sorry about the price, but they ARE very expensive to produce!). The good news is that we will have 100 promo CDs of the single - and they'll be free to the first 100 album buyers, whether they but the 7" or not

PLEASE FORM AN ORDERLY QUEUE FOR MECHANISMS PART TWO

I've had to stop taking new orders for the Cranium Pie double LP until the vinyl actually arrives (now due to reach me on April 1st). I'm just a little worried about being able to fulfil more orders and need to do a proper stock-check before taking more cash off anyone. All pre-paid orders ARE secure!

PERMANENT CLEAR LIGHT ALBUM ON VINYL

Permanent Clear Light's album, 'Beyond These Things', is available at last on vinyl - even though it's not on Fruits de Mer, it's pretty bloody essential. The album is remastered, has a new cover, and the track listing is very different from the original CD release.BR>
The vinyl version includes 14 minutes of previously unreleased psychedelic mayhem. It's a limited edition of 300 copies.
The album can be ordered directly from the record company: https://godrecordsgardenofdreams.bandcamp.com/
or from PCL/FdM/vinyl-friendly stores such as Shiny Beast (Holland) and Heyday Mail Order (UK).

THE SIDE EFFECTS OF THE LATEST VINYL REVIVAL

Demand on pressing plants is increasing alarmingly - at least it's alarming for a little label like FdM; so I'm going to have to be rather vague about the release-date for the 'Side Effects' set at the moment. I had hoped for June 1, but I'm backtracking to 'summer 2015' until I know more

SIDE EFFECTS - TALES OF TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS...X2

FdM does more to support the ailing cardboard box industry with a four LP set - scheduled for the end of May and festuring The Bevis Frond, Superfjord, Arcade Messiah, The Soft Bombs, Julie's Haircut, Wreaths, The Luck Of Eden Hall and Sendelica. more details via our discography page

TOR PEDERS 'BREV FRAN EDERSTORP' ON CD

There was so much interest in the vinyl release, the band have agreed to let me produce a very limited run on CD - the band will have 50 copies and I'll have 100 copies at the 'Games For May' gig - at the ridiculous price of £5 a copy (exclusively for sale at the gig, with any left going to our '13th Dream Of Dr. Sardonicus' festival)

TIR NA NOG'S FIRST STUDIO ALBUM IN 40 YEARS

Leo O'Kelly and Sonny Condell will release 'The Dark Dance' on May 24 - and that just happens to be the date of our 'Games For May' gig, so our Half Moon gig will be the official launch gig/party/whatever for 'The Dark Dance' - cool or what?

TOTALLY FRUITS DE MER

Tune in for an hour of Fruits de Mer hits, near-misses and nowhere-nears from Mike Bradshaw on his Totally Radio breakfast show
https://totallyradio.com/shows/the-daily-show/episodes/the-daily-show-30-jan-2015#_

LORD SNOOTY AND HIS PALS

more strange music from Fruits de Mer Records than you can shake a blender at - Lord Snooty's radio special on January 25th, courtesy of Todd Dillingham, on music world radio
https://www.facebook.com/events/562029520598167/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular

CRANIUM PIE - MECHANISMS PART 2

FdM's first release will be a double album from Cranium Pie, their follow-up to 'Mechanisms Part 1', strangely enough. 'Mechanisms Part 1' was voted Classic Rock magazine's "bonkers prog rock album of 2012" and you can be sure that the band's extended stay in a home for disturbed/disturbing musicians didn't help at all; due on sale late-March - pre-orders now being taken

RADIO SPECIAL - NEW YEAR'S DAY

There's a 2 hour Fruits de Mer Records special on Radio Centraal on New Year's Day (9.30pm, or 8.30pm if you're in the UK) - The Magic Mushroom presents tracks from 'Postcards From The Deep' and '7 and 7 is'
http://www.radiocentraal.be/Realescape/welkom

CHEMISTRY SET INTERVIEW

FRUITS de MER'S FIRST FESTIVAL - AUGUST 7-9 2015

oh yes, we're going for it - thanks to Pete Bingham from Sendelica, who is doing all the real work. Three evenings at the Cellar Bar in Cardigan - and in the art gallery two doors away - yes, an INDOOR festival (it IS in Wales)Headliners include THE BEVIS FROND, ASTRALASIA, SOFT HEARTED SCIENTISTS, SCHNAUSER and - of course - SENDELICA.I can hardly believe it myself; lots of giveaways, lots of great vinyl, lots more fantastic bands and a couple of things we can't announce quite yet. All the details we have - including early-bird tickets ARE HERE

MEGA DODO / FRUITS de MER 'MEET AND GREET' COMPETITION WINNERS

Congratulations to all the winners - in the UK, Italy and Germany - and thanks to everyone who entered. If you didn't recevied details of the Mega dodo competition, you're not on any fruits de Mer lists so you need to email me to rectify that. If you didn't hear about the FdM comp from Mega dodo, you're clearly not on their list and you need to contact them

FdM'S BELATED SUMMER HOLIDAY

Liz and i are taking a short break from packing and posting until mid-December and going nowhere near a roll of sellotape, pile of cardboard or the local Royal Mail sorting office. So if you'd like to place an order for anything that you want delivered before Christmas, you might be safer using Heyday and Shiny Beast, who are made of sterner stuff and are still be open for business! But any orders I receive between now and Dec 15 will be posted out as soon as we emerge from hibernation and meanwhile I'll still be sending and receiving emails, so there's no real escape.

MEGA DODO COMPETITION

If you're on one of the FdM mailing-lists, you'll have received details of a nifty competition, courtesy of John Blaney, who runs the label - by way of an introduction to the other half of the May 2015 Half Moon event. If you haven't had details of it, you need to get on the FdM mailing-list - please email fruitsdemer7@hotmail.com

GAMES FOR MAY - MAY 24, 2015

Fruits de Mer and Mega Dodo get together for an afternoon and evening of great live music at The Half Moon in Putney. One of my favourite venues - terrific atmosphere, real ale, good food, easy to get to, and run by people who love live music. Tir na nOg, Schnauser, The Honey Pot, Mark and the Clouds, The Past Tense, DJ Marrs Bonfire and a couple of stall selling stuff that's exclusive to the gig. All that for £15 AND you get a 7" single featuring all the bands (if you turn up to collect it!).
You have SIX MONTHS to plan your lives around this one - so there's no excuse! All the details are HERE

NON-PLAYABLE POSTCARDS

Just to be very clear about the 'Postcards From The Deep' box-set - the 10 postcards are...postcards. They're NOT playable postcards (I wish they were, but the uncertainties surrounding getting them produced to a schedule and to a vaguely acceptable quality proved too big to take the risk). But the postcards DO look good - and the 10 flexidiscs must definitely ARE playable!

TAKING PRE-ORDERS FOR NOVEMBER RELEASES

The last flurry of vinyl for 2014 - and it's a pretty scary amount of music we're inflicting on you once again, and in/on all manner of media (well, 7" vinyl, flexi discs and CDs, anyway)

AUGUST 7-9, 2015

Block those three days out of your diary too!

'7 and 7 is' is now a '7 and 7 was'

No more at the pressing-plant so i've got to declare it a sell-out - but you might well be able to pick up a set from one of the FdM-friendly shops listed on our 'links' page

NOVEMBER SCHEDULE UNVEILED

Our last releases of the year are revealed elsewhere on the site - please don't try to pre-order quite yet as I'm waiting for confirmation of delivery dates, including a new supplier for the 'Postcards' project. As soon as I'm pretty confident of when we'll get everything I'll start taking orders.

SEPTEMBER RELEASES NOW IN-STOCK

Simones' first-ever 45 and the '7 and 7 is' 60s US psych covers box-set are disappearing fast. As usual, my photographic efforts don't do them justice, but my record-deck does

THE CONTINUING STORY OF '7and 7 is' - COURTESY OF GOLDMINE

SENDELICA - LIVE AT CRABSTOCK

Sendelica's new album - their storming set from the Fruits de Mer Festival of Psychedelia in Cardigan earlier this year - is on sale very soon on the 'Friends of the Fish' label.
Order your copy from the band...
click here

TIR NA NOG PLAYING THE CELLAR BAR IN CARDIGAN

Tir na nOg are paying a first visit to the Cellar Bar in Cardigan on October 10th. Fruits de Mer will there, soaking up the atmosphere and definitely NOT selling records, so it's safe to come along
AND there's an exclusive, free CD for the first 75 people booking early - featuring three tracks from the band's FdM single and a live version of 'Strong In The Sun'.

LIMITED-RUN BLACK VINYL

I have a few copies in-stock of the Astralasia LP+7" and Tir na nOg 7", all black vinyl - please email me if you'd like to know more

ASTRALASIA T-SHIRTS

...I've also just taken delivery of a very limited number of Astralasia 'Wind on Water' T-shirts - again, please drop me a line for details

SIMONES - COMING SOON TO THIS RECORD LABEL

Delayed from the May schedule, USA's fuzz guitar cult hero Simones will be gracing the grooves of Fruits de Mer this autumn, with two tracks chosen by Al from his back-catalogue; it's Simones' first time on a 45 and i am suitably pleased with myself to have pulled this one off

FRUITS DE MER 7" BOX-SET

more news on this soon, but I can tell you the September releases will include a seven x 7" box-set featuring some of your/my favourite Fruits de Mer artists and one or two who only make occasional visits to FdM Towers but are very, very welcome when they do

ASTRALASIA - ON SALE NOW!

It feels good to be able to type that after so long - i'm quietly pleased with myself for seeing this one through - although all i actually did was say, "let's keep going" a couple of times when the idea of the sleeve and the reality didn't look like they were ever going to match up. Great work by Pixi, Wayne, Anouk and everyone at Record Industry - and of course to Marc Swordfish for persuading me to go for it in the first place

INTRODUCING 'FRIENDS OF THE FISH'

a new and very occasional, spin-off label from Fruits de Mer - where FdM's closely-related artists release their own albums with a very fishy feel to them - self-funded, self-distributed but with me cheering them on from the touchline; they're not Fruits de Mer releases, but they're close...and there's no better way to start than with Sendelica's live set from the Crabstock festival in Cardigan earlier this year
...click here for all the details

GOOD NEWS FOR PVC LOVERS

The first Astralasia sleeve has been screenprinted, and it's looking pretty good - but they have to be printed one-by-one by hand, and left to dry, it's a real arts & crafts thing - so please be patient for just a little longer

STAY - NEW ALBUM - LOOKING FOR FUNDING

One of Fruits de Mer's favourite bands - Stay - are hoping to get Owen Morris, who has produced The Verve and Oasis, to look after their next album, but these things cost money, so they're doing a kickstarter-type thing, with some very interesting items available for early sponsors. Check it all out at http://www.mymajorcompany.es/stay-nuevo-album

TOR PEFERS, CRAIG PADILLA, TIR NA NOG RELEASES NOW ON SALE

...with Astralasia's 'Wind On Water' re-scheduled for June 29, due to artistic differences (the artwork on the card sleeve has fallen out with the artwork on the PVC outer sleeve - but they are currently in mediation, and arguing over custody of the bonus 7" single)

TIR NA NOG UK TOUR STARTS

on Saturday, in fact - at the Farncombe Music Club, near Woking. We'll be there, and so will a few advance copies of the EP - but don't despair if you've pre-ordered, I'lel be getting my supply around Jun 9, and so will Heyday and Shiny Beast

EBAY GUM

A 'Crabstock On Ice' goodie-bag has sold for £293, which is pretty wild...but a few hours later a 'Crabstock USA' goodie-bag sold for £362, so maybe it wasn't so wild after all
...and now a Crabstock UK goodie-bag has sold for a comparatively-modest £210

JACK ELLISTER ON TOTALLY RADIO/RADIO REVERB

Check out Mike Bradshaw's morning show - streaming now on www.totallyradio.com - for an hour-long special with Mike interviewing Jack, playing tracks from his Fruits de Mer releases AND persuading Jack to play live in the studio - a perfect warm-up for the trip to Cardigan Bay and Crabstock

CRABSTOCK UK IS SOLD OUT

I hope you weren't planning on turning up on spec on the day as the Crabstock Festival is now officially SOLD OUT

THE NEW VINYL HAS LANDED

at last, the "late March" singles have arrived at FdM Towers - and we'll be packing and posting them as fast as possible over the weekend

JACK ELLISTER - CRABSTOCK WARM-UP GIGS IN BRIGHTON AND LONDON

Jack is playing Fitzherbert's in the middle of Brighton on April 24th - it's FREE ENTRY, but it's a small venue so get there early!
more details at FB
And it's just been confirmed that Jack will also be headlining a London gig - at the 12 Bar Club in Denmark Street on April 23rd
more details at http://www.12barclub.com/gig_listings.html

SCHIZO FUN ADDICT - NOW WITH ADDED DVD

All copies of the Schizo Fun Addict 'Suspiria' 7" will include a DVD of the full-length feature film, 'Towers', directed by the band's main man Jet Wintzer. Another random act of randomness by FdM

CHEERS

Good news soon, I hope, for anyone who'd like to raise a glass of Mantle Brewery's Crabstock special-edition best bitter to the Crabstock bands, but can't get to Cardigan for the festival - Mantle are looking to arrange with The Real Ale Company to make bottles available by the dozen by mail. sorry, but it will be limited to Europe addresses and posting bottles is expensive, but I've given the bottle an FdM catalogue number of 'Perch 9' in anticipation

The PRETTY THINGS - LIVE!

The Pretty Things 1st album LIVE! Launch show has moved to the 100 Club in Oxford St on July 4th
It's been a long time in the making, but at last the UK's greatest psych/R&B band are releasing their new album, to celebrate 50 years in the business. It's a live version of their first LP (recorded at the 100 Club) - you've already heard one or two tracks from the gig on Fruits de Mer singles, but this is the entire 1st album played live - i was at the gig, and it's going to be bloody marvellous
They're returning to the 100 Club to launch the album (copies available for sale on the night) on July 4th, with a special 50th anniversary gig
The album's on the band's own label, not Fruits de Mer, but it's got to be an essential part of any music junkie's collection. See the band live (they're still as brilliant as ever) and take the album with you, then crank up the hi-fi and turn the clock back 50 years...
more news soon

PAYPAL-ENABLED

well maybe - I've added a 'shop' page link on a test basis - only available for UK customers and focussed mainly on pre-ordering new releases, but it's a start

SIMONES - WORTH THE WAIT

I was hoping to include this with the May releases, it will now be the summer, but FdM will be releasing the first-ever 7" by Simones, whose privately-pressed LPs were re-released as a box-set on Headspin last year; amazing fuzz/psych sounds - heady days!>/h4>

NEW NAMES ON FRUITS de MER

I'm pleased, damned-pleased in fact, to say that the late-May releases on FdM will include a brilliant all-new album by the equally brilliant ASTRALASIA (who helped rekindle my love music in the 90s and sneaked a mad track onto the 2014 FdM Annual) and the legendary Tir na nOg, who are responsible for some of the finest acid-folk of the last 40 years and have recorded a four-track EP especially for us

EXORCISING THE DEMOS

some lucky members club members will be getting a copy of this exclusive CD EP of demos from the Soft Hearted Scientists - a bit of a taster of things to come from the band in 2014

FdM's NEW, IMPROVED WEB SITE

a slight exagerration perhaps - but i've added a google site search box to the 'home', 'discography' and a few other pages as a test - they seem to work pretty well

RECORD EBAY PRICE

a goodie-bag from last year's Borderline gig sold for a gob-smacking £599. It DID include a set of 5 test-pressings that i was selling at the gig for £25, but it's still a pretty scary number - and it's double the price I've seen any other Fruits de Mer items sell for
...click here just to prove it

CRABSTOCK ON ICE

On May 3rd at theClub Darkside in Helsinki - the Fruits de Mer Festival of Psychedelia reaches Finland - it's Crabstock on Ice! Sendelica, Octopus Syng, Us and Them, The Legendary Flower Punks - plus DJ Astro spinning some great psych discs.

CRABSTOCK USA

Fruits de Mer Records' Festival of Psychedelia, sponsored by WPKN FM, will be staged at The Outer Space, 259 Treadwell Street in Hamden, Connecticut on Friday April 11th. Doors open at 9pm. just $5 a ticket>
There'll be a great line-up of FdM-related bands - The Luck Of Eden Hall, Sky Picnic and The Seventh Ring Of Saturn - plus an exclusive Fruits de Mer Crabstock USA CD for the first 100 through the door. More news soon

TRUST THE WIZARDS

'Whatever Happened To The Soft Hearted Scientists' has been chosen by the Trust the Wizards site as 'best retrospective in 2013'(as well as the band's 'Song From The River' being rated No.2 in the best song list...
AND the 'strange fish box set' chosen as best compilation - cripes!
http://trustthewizards.com/2013/12/16/kicker-of-elves-favourite-things-from-2013/

WE'RE NOT WORTHY

But we're not arguing..."with every release you are issued a passport to travel over, under, sideways, down; and into unfamiliar dimensions that defy time and space" - the 'Instrumental' blog has given Fruits de Mer its Gold Star Music Empire Award for 2013 in its 'Last Word for 2013' - we are well-chuffed! Read it and weep at http://instrumentali.com

CRABSTOCK CALLING

FdM's first gig of the year (oo-er, does that mean there might be more than one? God knows)is booked for the sunny west coast of Wales for April 26th. The UFO club in the Castle cellar bar in the middle of Cardigan will host 8 hours of psychedelia and spacerock. Everything is being organised by local heroes Sendelica, but Fruits de Mer will be there, with me flogging anything that moves and Liz dishing out free CDs like they were going out of fashion (which, indeed, they are).With tickets only £10, it's a bloody bargain, I tell you

NOVEMBER VINYL NOW AVAILABLE

The five November singles have arrived here at FdM Towers and will be at FdM-friendly record shops very soon. All UK pre-orders are already in the post, international orders will be shipped from Heyday and Shiny Beast over the next week. I am already out-of-stock of the Vibravoid, Vespero and Shrunken Head Music releases, but i can put you in touch with shops that will be more than happy to take your order - just drop me a line

WE COME BEARING GIFTS - FdM CASSETTE SOLD ON eBAY

One of the 100 cassettes we produced and gave away to Fruits de Mer fans back in 2009 has just been sold on ebay - for about $350. I would claim it to be some kind of record, except:
1. it's a cassette
2. there are some wild prices being paid for original hip-hop tapes!

NOVEMBER SINGLES - STILL COMING ALONG NICELY

Test pressings all signed off, inserts produced, it's looking good for delivery to me, Heyday and Shiny Beast by November 18th - maybe even a day or two earlier

FdM/RECORD COLLECTOR GOODIE BAGS ON EBAY

A few people decided that the goodie bags we gave away free at the borderline gig were better off in new homes as they've already appeared on ebay - one sold for £68, one for about £100, and another for £128 - talk about instant collectibles!

THE FRUITS de MER BORDERLINE FREEBIES

Of course, the real news is the great line-up of bands at the Borderline on August 10 - The Pretty Things, Stay, Sendelica, The Luck Of Eden Hall, Jack Ellister - but it's also worth mentioning that the first 150 through the door on the day will each get an FdM/Record Collector goodie-bag, including four CDs, a White Sails DVD and a '30 Years of Record Collector' hardback (it's worth mentioning 'cos I've just spent the day putting the bags together - rock'n'roll, eh? Hell, I might buy a ticket myself)

THE RETURN OF THE GIANT 7-inchers

halfway through the year, and I'm finally letting rip with a series of 7" singles - all due on sale on August 10, the day of the all-day gig in London. all the details are scattered round the site, but here's a reminder of the covers

SUMMER FRUITS DE MER ALL-DAYER

In case you hadn't noticed, FdM is going live on Augugst 10th - The Pretty Things, Stay, Sendelica, Luck Of Eden Hall, Sendelica, an FdM/Record Collector goodie bag, you name it....
all the details are at http://www.reallylivemusic.com

THE QUALITY OF MER SEA

In Record Collector's latest issue, Ian Shirley tells the story of Fruits de Mer - from a shambolic DIY label with little idea of what it was doing to.....well, err, anyway, it's quite a nice read

PLANKTON

Record Collector, in their esteemed wisdom, have decided to launch a new series of 'Modern Collectibles' by pressing an album that compiles tracks from some of Fruits de Mer's earliest releases. It's called 'Plankton' and there will only be 500 made available for sale - you can see the details in the new issue of RC, or go straight to http://recordcollectormag.com/show-product/762. I have a feeling these won't be around for long.

THE STRANGE FISH ARE HERE

It feels like they've been swimming against strong currents for quite a while but they've finally reached shore at FdM Towers, Heyday and Shiny Beast - and we'll all be working double shifts to get them out to everyone who has pre-ordered the, and to FdM-friendly shops, over the next week

RECORD COLLECTOR and FRUITS de MER GET HITCHED

...and give birth to....? It's probably the biggest, most flattering thing that's happened to FdM since RC reviewed our first single - way back in the Bracken days - and I'll be able to tell you all about it VERY soon

BORDERLINE STAGES THE SUMMER FRUITS de MER ALL-DAYER

FdM goes live, and in a pretty spectacular way, with an all-day festival at this central london venue. Sponsored by Record Collector, it's a not-to-be-miseed event for everyone who's been following the label (I'll be there, anyway)

FISH IN A BOX

...and to add to the sheer loveliness of the strange fish set of albums, the first 400 sets will turn up in a delicate (ie flimsy) card slipcase, emblazoned (whatever that means) with the strange fish logo - at no extra cost to you, but at considerable cost and grief to me - another act of random, and arguably wholly unnecessary, kindness from Fruits de Mer

STRANGE FISH ARE COMING

Just in case you hadn't noticed elsewhere on the site - a completely unfeasible set of six LPs (AND at CD!)spanning everything from ambient to full-on progressive rock will be released on June 17th, or thereabouts. Certainly the biggest project I've taken on yet - the music is all rather wonderful, and occasionally weird - all I've got to now is pull it together (gulp)

LAST CALL FOR 'RE-EVOLUTION' and 'SOFT HEARTED SCIENTISTS'

I'm already sold out of both albums - very sorry, but i HAVE been encouraging everyone to pre-order for the last two months! If you want to pick up a copy without resorting to ebay, please check out the 'links' page on this site (the last I heard, Shiny Beast still had a few copies of the Scientists double LP, but they're getting scarce rather quickly, good luck!)

strange fish, anybody?

Oh good grief, a new series of albums from Fruits de Mer? OH YES! It's strange, it's fishy, it's...well it will be soon - watch this space

IF IT'S MARCH, IT MUST BE TIME FOR THE FEB RELEASES

very sorry, but a few glitches at the pressing plant meant that things ran a little behind on 'Re-Evolution' and 'Whatever Happened To The Soft Hearted Scientists' - but they HAVE now landed, and they are being dispatched as fast as possible - it won't happen again (of course it will, who am I kidding? But I'll come up with better excuses next time)

BOOK EARLY FOR NEW FdM ALBUMS

Orders are now being taken for FdM's next releases - 'Re-Evolution - FdM Sings The Hollies' and 'Whatever Happened To The Soft Hearted Scientists'. Heyday Mail Order and Shiny Beast have both albums listed on their sites for international buyers, while I'm ready and willing to take your order if you're in the UK - email me for details (there are email links everywhere!)

GRAB A COPY OF 'HEAD MUSIC' FOR £25

head over to www.thoseoldrecords.co.uk, who still have a handful of copies in stock - and they also have most of FdM's 2012 singles if you're looking to fill in a few gaps in your collection

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

thanks everyone for making 2012 a pretty special year for Fruits de Mer, here's to 2013 being even better!

THE WHITE EP - AN OFFICIAL SELL-OUT!

They came and went faster than a X-Factor winner - I'm already sold out of them, although you might still be able to pick up a copy from one of FdM's stockists - listed on this site's links page - good luck (I think Clear spot/Shiny Beast might be getting a few more copies in from one of the artists)

CURVEY'S RETURN

not content with a new four-track ep on Regal Crabomophone - The Luck Of Eden Hall's Winkle 9 - Curvey has also taken up his pen in anger and drawn the cover for 'The League Of Psychedelic Gentlemen' - bloody brilliant, as you might expect if you remember 'Roqueting Through Space' (another one of Curvey's)

CHRISTMAS COMES EARLY AT FdM

or it does if you're a vinyl junkie - four cracking 7" singles (actually one's a double!) from Fruits de Mer, including exclusive tracks by The Pretty Things, Henry Padovani, The Luck Of Eden Hall, Paul Roland, Cranium Pie, The Seventh Ring Of Saturn and many more of your FdM favourites, old and new (well, I hope they are anyway)

NEW TO FdM - PAUL ROLAND

Paul's first track on a Fruits de Mer release will be featured on the December EP 'The League Of Psychedelic Gentlemen'. He was described by the sorely-missed Ptolemaic Telescope as “a maestro of melancholy and madnes", while Robyn Hitchcock once called Paul, "the male Kate Bush". Paul has been recording music for over 30 years, and has found time to write over 30 books, including a complete guide to ghosts and a biography of Marc Bolan

NEW TO FdM - HENRY PADOVANI

The Police's first lead guitarist, Henry has played on and off with The Flying Padovanis for over 30 years. He has also been a judge on France's X Factor and managed Zucchero! His first track on Fruits de Mer is a cover of George Harrison's 'Long Long Long', on The White Album.

NEW TO FdM - LEIGH GREGORY

San Franciscan Leigh has a track on the FdM 2012 members-only CD, with more to follow in 2013. He formed the band Mellow Drunk and is also a member of Memory's Mystic Band. Unlike Fruits de Mer, Leigh has picked up glowing reviews in the likes of Uncut and Mojo!

NEW TO FdM - SOFT HEARTED SCIENTISTS

Formed in Cardiff in 2001 as a duo-plus-guests, Soft Hearted Scientists have grown to a four-piece comprising Nathan Hall plus multi-instrumentalists Dylan Line and Paul Jones, bassist Mike Bailey and occasional drummer Frank Naughton. Their manifesto includes creating music to insulate and protect us and like-minded souls from the horrors of line dancing, mullets, angst ridden foul metal music, irritating ring tones, reality TV scum jesters and, most of all, grim Red Bull fuelled townie Friday-night-fight cave dweller goblins. they appear on FdM for the first time on the members-only CD, 'The Crabs Sell Out'.

OCTOBER RELEASES - ON SALE NOW

my apologies to everyone who ordered their Anton Barbeau, Permanent Clear Light and Chemistry Set nice and early and expected them to be delivered by now - a slight glitch or two means they have just arrived from the pressing plant (Oct 25), so please allow another week or so before you start worrying that they've been lost forever (a week or so longer than that if you live outside the UK). I hope you'll feel they are worth the wait!

PERMANENT CLEAR LIGHT ON RADIO PURPLE

hear Permanent Clear Light's 'Higher Than The Sun' this Sunday (Sept 9) at 3:30pm on Purple Radio (http://www.purple-radio.co.uk/), the 'Universal Language' show

WIN A CHEMISTRY SET WHITE LABEL 7"

check out the new Strange Brew podcast from Jason Barnard - http://thestrangebrew.co.uk/http:/thestrangebrew.co.uk/time-machine - and not only can you hear a sneak preview of The Chemistry Set's new single on Regal Crabomophone, but you can also win a white label of it

LIVERPOOL INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF PSYCHEDELIA

September 29th seeing a gathering of some of the best new psych bands around, including FdM's The Lucid Dream (not to mention Time & Space Machine, Will Sargeant, Plank!, Dead Skeletons...) Find out more at http://www.bidolito.co.uk/gig/liverpool-psych-fest

TEENBEAT MAYHEM

(Priceless Info Press, 2012; 400 pages; hardcover)
I've just heard from Mike Stax at Ugly Things that he now has in stock the ULTIMATE guide to garage rock in the 1960s. A massive A-Z discography documenting every known garage/teenbeat 45 release - 400 pages, over 16,000 songs by thousands of teenage rock’n’roll groups from across the USA. Also includes a detailed history of the mid-60s teenbeat explosion, plus the Top 1,000 '60s Garage Tracks. Lavishly illustrated (in black & white and full-color). pricey, but ESSENTIAL! Check it out at the Ugly Things webstore - www.ugly-things.com

MARK RADCLIFFE'S MUSIC CLUB

Jack Ellister's new single is featured on Mark Radcliffe's Music Club (on BBC Radio 2) - about 16 mins in - Mark even plays a classic psych track by The Pretty Things to follow it - lovely stuff!
check it out at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/player/b01l7sdb

VINYL WILL BE LANDING ON AUGUST 15th

FdM's pressing plant, Record Industry (OK, we do share them with a few other labels, to be fair), have just told me that the August releases should be arriving at FdM Towers in Surrey on August 15th, so I, Nick Leese at Heyday and the Shiny Beast/Clear Spot team will all be doing our best to get them out to you over the following week

MARRS BONFIRE

..tonight at 8pm (July 19) - Marrs Bonfire plays a two-hour Fruits de Mer special on Bay.fm - you can listen to it live on the internet (check out the link below), Details of the show are on the Marrs Bonfire site - http://thesmartset.posterous.com/
...and here's the link to the radio station http://www.bayfm.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=62&Itemid=59

MORE RADIO ACTIVITY

If you'd like to hear two hours of Fruits de Mer's back-catalogue, head over to http://kdhx.org , find Valis' 'Trip Inside This House', click on his July 17th show and there are two hours of FdM just waiting for you.
Meanwhile, Lauren Laverne played Beautify Junkyards' 'From The Morning' and Gideon Coe played The Pretty Things' 'Renaissance Fair' earlier this week - both on BBC 6Music - what nice people they all are

NEW PRETTY THINGS INTERVIEW

There's a cracking new interview with all of the band, and their manager Mark St. John, at the Misnight To Six blog
http://midnighttosix.wordpress.com/2012/07/17/interview-with-the-pretty-things-july-2012/
- including some great stories about the early days, how the new guys joined the band, what's unreleased in the archives and even what they might have planned for their 50th anniversay next year! - well worth a read

BUYING FRUITS DE MER RELEASES - A BEGINNERS GUIDE

If you're new to the label, you might find this cobbled-together website a bit confusing - i certainly do. Do how do you buy the bloody records? If they're already on-sale, just check out the FdM-friendly shops and mail order services listed on the 'links' page. If you're trying to get ahead of the game and place an advance order... if you're in the UK, email me
if you're anywhere other than in the UK, both Heyday Mail Order Heyday Mail Order and Shiny Beast list all Fruits de Mer/Regal Crabomophone releases well before they go on sale.

IT's A COP-OUT...SORRY, SELL-OUT

blimey, all four June singles have sold out within a week - huge thanks everyone who has taken the plunge, I hope you enjoy them. There's still be copies available from shops and mail order services for a while yet, I'm sure, so check out the list on the 'links' page

MORE BBC AIRPLAY

in the space of a couple of days, Mark Radcliffe played nick nicely's 'Hilly fields' on his BBC Radio 2 'Music Club' and then on BBC Radio 6's 'Radcliffe and Maconie' - Mark says it's one of his favourite tracks, in fact it's the first song he's played twice on his music club (he described 'The Mourning' as a Scott Walker reimagining of the original, which is nice).

SUMMER SCHEDULE OF RELEASES

the good news is that the vfour singles scheduled for mid-June are still on-track to be delivered into the UK on June 12. And I've posted the basic details on the three singles that I'll be releasing in august, before i take a long holiday! You can read about them on the home page and in the discography and rather good they are too - something very special by The Pretty Things plus two new artists for Fruits de Mer, both of whom sent me tracks that i instantly KNEW I'd got to release - i think you'll love them

FRUIT DE MER ON THE BEEB

in the space of one week, Andrew Weatherall has played a couple of tracks from 'Head Music' on his 6Mix show on BBC Radio 6 and Mark Radcliffe has flwon the flag for krautrock on BBC Radio 2 by playing 'Waterfall' from 'Head Music' on his Music Club - only Wogan to go...

ROYAL MAIL PRICE INCREASES - AND fdM PRICES IN GENERAL

I'm waiting to hear what the latest price increases are going to be - they are due to take effect from the beginning of April, just in time to add to the costs of shipping out 'Head Music' and 'Sorrow’s Children'!
I'm sure it won't be good news (sad case that I am, I've read most of their 80+page proposal to the price regulator and still can't quite work out what they're planning - and i used to negotiate with the Royal Mail as part of my old job, rock'n'roll eh?). Although I'm sticking to the prices I've quoted for the new albums, I'm going to have to put up the price of 7" releases in future to 5.49 UKpounds - sorry but it's difficult to see how to balance the books with 7" singles, this will help and Fruits de Mer is predominantly a singles label. A small consolation is that I'm going to start producing professionally printed 7" sleeves, instead of the folded sheets that all FdM singles have come in until now – a bit classier, but also less work for me (standing over an A3 copier, getting the dimensions of the sleeve wrong several times over, then running out of ink/paper/patience, then trimming, folding and inserting 500 sleeves into plastic bags is not my favourite job).

PRIVATE SORROW ON BBC6

Hi-Fiction Science's new version of'Private Sorrow' (from 'Sorrow's Children') is getting airplay on Tom Robinson's 6Music Introducing show on his show scheduled for Monday 19th March at 1am.

OUR FIRST RELEASES OF 2012...

We're aiming for a mid-April release date for two of our most exciting records EVER! A double album of classic krautrock sounds, entitled 'Head Music', and 'Sorrow's Children', the classic Pretty Things album 'S.F. Sorrow' recreated in full. Now, I've been a krautrock fan since discovering the Brain label in a tiny virgin record shop in Birmingham in 1972 and I've lost count of the number of times I've seen The Pretty Things live (they're still brilliant!), so both FdM albums mean a hell of a lot to me - i hope you'll feel the same way

NEW UK FRUITS DE MER STOCKISTS

Three more UK shops have joined our small but select and happy band of stockists - always worth checking them out if we're sold out AND they stock a lot more than just our releases, so well-worth checking out anyway!

SUMMERISLE - 200 COPY RE-PRESS - SOLD OUT ALREADY!

Our Wicker Man and Luck of Eden Hall EPs both sold out instantly, but we had such a long waiting-list of people wanting to get hold of 'Summerisle', we pressed up 200 more - they arrived and sold out on the same day - sorry if you missed out, but we did give you lots of chances to reserve your copy!

LUCK OF EDEN HALL/WICKER MAN RELEASES - ON SALE NOW

there's no more to be said, really - we'll be shipping first copies out around October 10th, but please allow us an extra couple of weeks if you're in the USA as Andy is flying over to the UK in mid-October and will be taking a US stash home with him

A whole bunch of new artists join the FdM clan

Before the end of 2011, in our never-ending search for world domination we'll be unleashing a new crop of bands on our releases, alongside some of our old favourites (steady on, we've only been at this for three years, they're not THAT old). Some might be new to you too - such as King Penguin, The Ohm and Hills Have Riffs, some definitely aren't - The Bordellos and The Bevis Frond, for example??? The Fruits de Mer empire continues to grow at just about the same pace as my waist - comfortably-bloated, i like to call it

December releases

three new releases are now listed in our discography - all scheduled for December - check them out!

Classic Rock presents PROG

ok, so this isn't news quite yet, but wafter getting a track on their last c/m CD, e're really hoping that the next issue of PROG will feature Cranium Pie and their new album, 'Mechanisms (Part 1)'
I guess that if we could choose just one magazine to inteerview the Pie, PROG would be it, the signs are good, but there's a way to go yet - watch this space!

The Chemistry Set LIVE IN LONDON!

The Chemistry Set's first UK gig in over 20 years - June 18 at the Garage in Highbury (Unfortunately, Earthling Society won't be able to play, due to illness)
Tickets will be for sale at the door (which open at 7pm) - find out more at:
http://www.myspace.com/events/View/11052460/The-Chemistry-Set/The-Chemistry-Set-live-in-London
and
http://www.songkick.com/concerts/8850566-chemistry-set-at-garage

The Chemistry Set + Earthling Society singles - ON SALE NOW!

our apologies to everyone, not least both bands, but we had a two week delay in receiving copies of our new Earthling Society and Chemistry Set singles; but they have arrived at long last and we're now ready to take orders via PayPal - just go to our Discography page - and we'll ship 'em out as fast as we can.

a new Fruits de Mer forum...

we've had one go and...well, let's not go there (no-one else did), so now we've put the responsibility in the hands of a Fruits de Mer fan and all-round social-network-savvy guy, Sean Gibbins. Sean's new forum is here Fruits de Mer Forum
- go on, click on it and check it out.
What's it all about? In Sean's words, "Basically, I see it as all things FdM related, so the bands, rare vinyl, the releases themselves, the original releases..." As ever, forums go wherever you take them, so it's up to you (Andy and I will be there of course but - much as we enjoy talking to ourselves - it won't be the same without you)

Andy Bracken on steam radio...

Assuming everybody remembered to move their clocks forward an hour, Andy Bracken will be live on the air on Steve Di Costanzo's RADIO BASE CAMP on WPKN in Connecticut, USA this Friday, April 1st (foolish?) at 7pm UK time. That's 2pm EST in the USA of A, and quite late in India, not to mention quite early in Australia.
It can be listened to live at www.wpkn.org by clicking the LIVE button, and can also be found archived there after the event via the other blue button.
Hook up with Steve at his Facebook thingy here - www.facebook.com/radiobasecamp
Here's the blurb on proceedings:
Andy Bracken of Fruits de Mer Records will be joining us on Friday's show to explore his journey from inquisitive child to running one of the most collectible and innovative record labels out there (and it is "out there"). He'll choose a selection of tracks that illustrate just how one becomes obsessed with vinyl, and map out the path that took him from a rockabilly pioneer to acid tinged psych rock via goth and the indie underground...oh, and there's stuff about football as well! The journey will be driven by questions sent in by the Fruits de Mer Members Club, which is all terribly exciting!

ebay frenzy for FdM releases.....

...ok, slight exaggeration there, but a copy of our Eddie Cochran ep has just sold for over $50 - and we only released it in December! Meanwhile, Vibravoid's 'What Colour Is Pink?' ep has reached $49 and the auction isn't over yet. What's the moral of this story? for us, it's - we should have kept more copies for ourselves! for you - join our members club, that way you'll never miss a future release - email andy@fruitsdemerrecords.com and he'll explain everything

Something new this way comes...maybe

Andy and i have been talking about creating a sister label to Fruits de Mer since we first launched the label. We love what we do - and we don't intend to bugger it up - but we also know what the bands we work with are capable of, and we like the idea of giving some of their original material a sympathetic AND VINYL airing, maintaining the feel and quality of FdM releases of course (Andy's earlier BRACKEN label has given us a real steer on this).
So...we're currently talking to a band that will be known and loved by FdM'ers, and many more besides, about a possible first 7" release on our new label - combining an all-new track that is an absolute blockbuster with a new version of a psychedelic classic. More news soon - but first we have to let our members club and main mailing-list know what we're up to (or - if you email andy@fruitsdemerrecords.com - we'll get you onto our mailing-list straightaway, so you'll get the inside track!)

Earthling Society could be landing in our vicinity soon...

we're overstepping the mark here, but we're crap at keeping a secret...we've been talking with Fred Laird from the brilliant Earthling Society about a possible 7". The band are in the studio in the next few weeks to record some new material, and we're hoping they will be able to produce something Fdm-ish at the same time (we've swapped ideas on tracks - sa true classic, together with something VERY obscure is what we all have in mind - and we're keeping our fingers crossed.
The Strangebrew interviews Sidewalk Society

"Sidewalk Society sprinkle fairy dust over Brit-psych classics"

Jason Barnard talks to the band who to move forward, look back....
".Rising from LA’s soul, garage and mod scene come Sidewalk Society. However, their sound will sound surprisingly familiar for fans of The Strange Brew Era. They’ve just recorded a sensational new record breathing new life into Brit-psych cult classics such as “Lazy Old Sun” (The Kinks) and “Dandelion” (The Rolling Stones). They’re also on the verge of releasing a great new album of original material recalling The Yardbirds at their Jeff Beck/Jimmy Page peak...." now read on (and look out for the podcast)....

http://thestrangebrew.co.uk/articles/sidewalk-society

AND IN THE LATEST STRANGEBREW PODCAST - A ROLLING STONES SPECIAL - YOU CAN WIN THE NEW SIDEWALK SOCIETY EP - HEAD OVER TO

http:/thestrangebrew.co.uk/rollingstonesconnection

ANOTHER ACT OF RANDOM KINDNESS AT THE END OF 2010? AGAIN, FOR MEMBERS ONLY!

Thanks to a moment of stupidity from us and a great reaction from bands that we've worked with this year, we're going to try to put together an FdM Christmas CDr (last year it was a cassette, next year - who knows).
FdM 17 will feature tracks donated by several of our 'bands of 2010' (demos, new tracks, whatever takes their fancy), it will be absolutely free but also absolutely limited to the biggest supporters of our label through 2010, who've bought from us through thick and thin (and God knows we're thick), plus the bands themselves and a select few noteworthy reviewers, record shops and DJs who've been prepared to give us the time of day (you know who you are).
We'll press up no more than 200 - and it gets an official FdM volume number, so we'll be keeping a couple of copies for ourselves!
More details soon, meanwhile join the FdM Members Club today - no upfront commitment required - email andy@fruitsdemerrecords.com
You know it makes sense.

...and Mark Fry's single fetches over $40! We hoped we'd be able to bring out singles that vinyl junkies like us would want to collect, but $40-$60 for 2008/9 releases we were selling for $8 each up to a few months ago is a bit wild

We reckon it would cost about $240 to buy a complete set of FdM singles volumes 1-10 on ebay, compared to $72 from us at the time of release. Anyway, we hope it's reassuring to early FdM converts that you came to the right place!
'A PHASE WE'RE GOING THROUGH' DOWN TO AROUND 100 COPIES!
...don't say we didn't warn you - we only pressed up 500 and we're not pressing any more.

WE'VE STARTED AN 'FdM MEMBERS CLUB'!

..no, not that kind of member - it's a totally informal, no-strings-attached way of ensuring you get every FdM release without having to form an orderly queue, and with the outside chance that we'll dish out the odd members-only goodie at some point (just like we did to a few freinds, fans, bands and family with our Christmas 2009 cassette - the mysterious FdM Volume 9!)). You just have to email us andy@fruitsdemerrecords.com to say you want us to reserve copies of every future release for you...and we do. That's it - no money changes hands, so you can always change your mind, but it helps us plan our print orders and sort out posting of copies more quickly. We reckon our next release ('Hausfrauen Experiment') already has around 200 copies reserved and we're only pressing up 300 - so it's worth considering - anyway, the option's there...if you want to know more, or sign up to join the club that has more good taste than a bottle of Mersault, drop that email to andy@fruitsdemerrecords.comget in touch with any news you'd like to share: info@fruitsdemerrecords.com